The Detroit Lions' special teams gave up four touchdowns in two recent games, but did this unit make improvements during the bye week?AP File Photo

ALLEN PARK -- The Detroit Lions have fixed their problems on special teams, right?

Detroit's special teams unit is arguably the reason why the Lions are 1-3 entering Sunday's game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Lions special teams coach Danny Crossman recently addressed the issues concerning his unit, and vowed improvement. We will have a chance to see Detroit can finally stop the bleeding on special teams this weekend.

Welcome back to MLive.com's weekly Lions feature. In advance of each game, we identify the Lions' "Issue of the Week" and give our insight as to how it might play out.

And we welcome feedback from you, the reader, with some of the best comments slated to be used in an item later this week.

Going back over 10 years of NFL statistics, you won't find a team that's given up more than four combined kickoff and punt returns for touchdowns. So are the Lions historically bad in this department, or is this a string of bad luck?

On the punt returns, the Lions were caught flat-footed by a trick play in Tennessee, and missed a bunch of tackles against the Vikings. On the kickoff returns, there are no excuses, the Lions were simply outworked by their opponents.

If not for the failures of the coverage units the Lions might be 3-1 coming off the bye. Instead, the team is fighting for its playoff life after a quarter of the season.

The Eagles rank in the bottom five teams on both punt and kickoff returns. If the Lions can't manage to get it together this week, maybe they are historically bad.